When I was a little boy, roughly 5 or 6 years old, I would frequently go to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video to rent games for the Nintendo 64. There are three particular games that I rented over and over again: Super Smash Brothers, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and Mischief Makers. I imagine most people have heard of the first two games, but I bet few people have heard of Mischief Makers.

During the Nintendo 64 era, 3-D was the big thing. Major franchises like Mario and Zelda would make the big jump to 3-D on the N64, and just about every game on the system was 3-D. However, Mischief Makers came out of nowhere in 1997 and defied the new norm by being a 2-D platformer, complete with extremely unique game play and controls, strange looking, anime-style characters, and some downright awesome boss battles. And whenever you play the game, you will be making use of the N64 controller's D-pad, making for an even more unique experience. Hands down, Mischief Makers is one of the most underrated video games ever made, but it is also one of the best in history.

The story for this game starts out simple: Marina Liteyears, a powerful and cute female android, must rescue her perverted creator and robotics genius Professor Theo after he is kidnapped by an odd group that call themselves the Evil Empire. Theo has a very bad habit of being kidnapped though, so Marina will find herself having to save his butt more than once during the game. At first, you just know that the Empire is trying to conquer all planets, but you don't know what they want with Theo, just that they are taking him to the Emperor. However, later in the game, the true motives of the Evil Empire and their Emperor will be revealed.

Mischief Makers takes place on a planet called Clancer, home to many strange, kind of humanoid-looking creatures with faces that seriously look like the killer from Scream. Many Clancers have been influenced to become soldiers of the Empire, and will try to hinder your progress by assaulting you with bombs, lasers,  spikes, ninja stars, and even giant robot mechs. However, aside from evil Clancers, you must also fight a trio of so-called "justice warriors" known as THE Beastector (yes, that's how you say it). This trio consists of anthropomorphic animals armed with deadly weapons, brute strength, quick speed, and a never-ending thirst for justice.

What is really unique about this game is how you fight your enemies. Marina can't jump on her foes like Mario and Sonic can, and she can't shoot them like Mega Man and Samus Aran can, so instead she relies on her bare hands. In Mischief Makers, you can grab, shake, and throw just about every enemy, boss, or projectile that comes your way. This makes for some very unique game play, as you can throw enemies halfway across the screen, shake them down for treasure, or grab their projectiles and fire them right back.

This concept makes for some incredibly unique boss battles. There are 5 worlds in Mischief Makers, each one having anywhere from 8 to 12 stages, including mini-bosses and bosses, with worlds 2 through 5 always ending with a boss. Sometimes, you will just fight various wild creatures that attack you, such as giant worms, bees, moles, and more. However, you will also have to fight THE Beastector throughout the game, as each member will fight you twice. The bosses in this game are VERY bizarre, and put you in some wacky scenarios, like fighting a giant lava merman and his reptile sorcerer father dressed in purple, and fighting a member of THE Beastector who is riding on a robot dog mech while  you are riding on a cat who is riding on a missile. Each boss fight will have you grabbing, shaking, and throwing enemy projectiles and the enemies themselves in order to triumph.

The stages themselves are unique as well. You will have to use grabbing, shaking, and throwing to get through many stages and solve some puzzles. Sometimes you will find a clanpot that you can put items in and shake to get more powerful items (like putting 4 bombs in the clanpot will form a much more powerful clanbomb.) There are also clanballs all over the place that you can either shake for goodies or use to traverse stages. And some stages will put you in very strange situations, like participating in an athletic festival, riding a tricycle over a bridge that is being destroyed by massive waves of water, riding through an aerial assault on a bee, and even doing mathematical equations.

In addition to being able to grab, shake, and throw, Marina has jet boosters that allow her to perform a speed dash and even hover in the air for a short time. You can also slide, and perform a slide-jump to cover greater distances. Overall, the controls are smooth, and although the concept of grabbing, shaking, and throwing takes getting used to, it's just a blast once you get the hang of it.

While you are playing the game, you want to make sure you keep an eye out for gems. Blue gems will restore your health, red gems can be used to purchase continues whenever you die  (if you don't have at least 10 it's game over), green gems restore much more health than blue gems, and gold gems restore a ton of health and also serve a secondary purpose that will be explained later.
The visuals in this game are very nice, as all of the levels you explore have wonderfully-designed backgrounds. The snow levels look gorgeous, the lava levels all take place in an intricately designed shrine, and the cave levels have murky backgrounds that certainly fit the mood. The characters themselves all look great as well, although I am a fan of anime-style art. Still, Marina is cute, the Clancers look kind of cute (albeit a bit creepy) as well, and THE Beastector's members all look awesome and intimidating.

The music is great as well in this game. Many of the songs are upbeat and catchy, however there are some more sinister sounding songs that play when the situation calls for it, like when you are facing a boss. All of the sound effects in this game are fun to listen to as well, and the voices aren't bad either. Each Beastector member has some memorable lines, such as "through fire, justice is served!", and of course, Marina says "shake shake!" just about every time you shake an enemy. Once you hear her say that, you will not be able to un hear it, mark my words.

Now, Mischief Makers has a crap load of replay value. Admittedly, the game is quite short, and once you get the hang of the game play, you can beat it in a day with little trouble. However, the main challenge in this game comes from two things. Firstly, you have the task of finding the gold gems. Each stage in the game has 1 gold gem, and you want to make sure you get as many as possible. I won't spoil anything in particular, but the amount of gold gems you have will affect the ending of the game, so get as many as possible! And speaking of the ending, at the beginning of the game, when you make a file, you will be asked your age. This may seem weird, but your age will play a role in determining the ending, depending on how many gold gems you have.

Also, each time you complete a stage, you will be shown how long you took beating the stage. You will be ranked on how quick you beat each stage, with S being the best ranking and D being the worst. You will really have to practice each stage many times to be able to speed through them and get the best possible ranking. But be warned: S rankings are extremely hard to obtain, and many are seemingly impossible to get. So you better have some quick fingers and be ready to mash that D-pad!

So yes, Mischief Makers is one wacky game, but it is so much fun to play. The game play is addicting, the stage designs are unique and fun, the characters are wacky and memorable, the bosses are just plain awesome, the graphics are nice, and the music is plain catchy. This game is very underrated, yet it deserves more love, as it is one of the best games that has ever been created. If you haven't played this game, do yourself a favor, and give it a chance.